Steamed Brownies with Cheese Cake Layer

If you every have the chance to go to Bandung, don’t miss to buy the famous ‘Brownies Kukus Amanda’, basically it is steamed chocolate cake. Through years of refining her secret recipe she got this smooth structured steamed chocolate. Perfect in color, texture, fragrant, taste just everything was right. It started as a home industry, then from words of mouth local tourist started to go all the way to her shop to get some Amanda Brownies as souvenirs. Then people started buying from her and reselling it by parking their car in strategic locations, opening their trunk and sell it directs. After a few years, her profit could buy her a big store in downtown city. She transformed it to a bakery cafe type of store that is a hit in town. Amanda Brownies since then has transformed the definition of ‘brownies’ in Indonesia. Anything cake , steamed, baked, grilled, poached, what ever, with the color brown will be called ‘brownies’. It became the marketing gimmick of that time, incredible huh…

I miss the brownies, fortunately my mother sent me a bona fied very easy cookbook focusing on cakes. Even though, the recipe hardly come close to the real brownies, still it was easy and tasty to make. Great for tea breaks.

How to prepare:
-sieve flour and mix it with the chocolate powder and baking powder, set aside
-in a double pan (au bain marie) melt dark chocolate and the mix in the vegetable oil little by little, turn of heat, set aside
-with an electric mixer, mix eggs, sugar and ovalet until white and fluffy
-keep mixing, add the- flour and the melted chocolate little by little, by taking turns
-add the sweetened condensed milk
-heat the steam pan
-grease bowl with vegetable oil
-pour in the batter and steam for 45 minutes
-after 10-15 minutes cooking open the lid a little to keep the cake from blooming in the middle

-with an electric mixer, mix the cream cheese and castor sugar
-add the egg one by one
-take 3-4 tbs of the batter and place in another bowl, mix it with the melted chocolate
-pour the white cream cheese batter on top of the brownies
-sprinkle the chocolate cream cheese batter and cook for another 15-30 minutes
-take out and cool